An elegant card duel of beasts: four sides, nine spots, one crown.
Across the five habitats, every rivalry is settled the same way: a deck of animal portraits and a 3×3 board. Place a card beside a rival’s, and if your number is higher, their card flips to your side.
Twenty-seven beasts from five habitats, eight rivals to defeat, and Same, Plus and Combo flips that can turn a lost board around in one move.
I · Fact sheet
Fact sheet
Title
Beast Triad
Platform
Playdate
Developer
Vincent (solo)
Release
Coming soon
Price
To be announced
Genre
Card game, tactics
Cards
27 beasts, 4 tiers, 5 habitats
Modes
Campaign, Quick, Pass & Play, Daily
Play time
About 2–3 hours to clear (estimate)
Controls
D-pad, A, B, crank
Crank
Browse cards; buttons work too
Players
1, or 2 on one Playdate
Language
English
Setting
Five habitats, from the Whispering Woods to the Golden Plains
Press
hey.vincent@icloud.com
II · Trailer
Trailer
76 seconds · 1920×1080, 30 fps · captured from the game running in the Playdate Simulator, shown at 4× with the Playdate screen’s own grey tones · trailer.mp4
III · The game
The game
Short description
Beast Triad is an elegant animal card duel for Playdate. Play beasts on a 3×3 board, flip your rivals’ cards with higher numbers, and chain Same, Plus and Combo flips across five habitats.
Long description
From the Whispering Woods to the Golden Plains, the beasts settle every rivalry the same way: a deck of portrait cards and a 3×3 board. It is called a bout, and it is decided by numbers, nerve and the shape of the board.
Each card has four numbers, one per side. Place a card beside a rival’s card and compare the touching sides. Higher wins the flip, and the card turns to your color. When the nine spots are full, whoever holds more cards wins the bout.
Some spots are habitats. Set a hedgehog on Woods and every side gets +1. Set it on the River and it gets −1. Read the board, the icon in each card’s corner, and what your rival still holds. Then look for Same, Plus and Combo: matching or equal-sum sides flip several cards at once, and every card they flip can keep the chain going.
Take on eight rivals in the Campaign, from Bramble the hedgehog in the Whispering Woods to Queen Mane on the Golden Plains, and win a card from each rival’s hand. Fill your binder with all 27 beasts, tune your five-card hand, then take it to a Quick Bout, the Daily Bout, or hand the Playdate across the table for two-player Pass & Play.
Features
Triple Triad, in the wild. A 3×3 board, five cards a side, four numbers on every card. Higher numbers flip cards. The rules fit on a card and the tactics do not.
Same, Plus and Combo. Match two sides, or make two sums equal, and several rivals flip at once. Cards flipped that way can flip their own neighbors: the chain that turns a bout around.
Five habitats. Woods, River, Meadow, Peaks and Jungle. A beast at home gets +1 on every side; away, −1. The board is different in every bout.
A food chain of 27 beasts. Four tiers, from Prey (Hedgehog, Frog, Rabbit) through Foragers and Hunters up to the Apex (Bear, Crocodile, Lion, Eagle, Panther). Each tier has its own card frame, and every beast has its own numbers and home habitat.
Eight rivals, four AI levels. A Campaign with a rival per region, and Quick Bouts from Easy to Master. Master searches several moves ahead and plays out the endgame.
Play it your way. Pass & Play on one Playdate with hidden hands, a Daily Bout with the same table for everyone each day, and a crank that browses your hand. Your rival’s hand stays face down, so reading their play is part of the game.
Made for the Playdate screen. Portrait cards with the numbers in a cross at the top-left, your cards in white and your rival’s in a light dither, a patterned table and a bold rounded type, all drawn for the 400×240 1-bit display.
IV · How it plays
How it plays
Place and flipPick a card, choose a spot, place it. A higher touching number flips the rival card.SameTwo or more touching sides match: those rivals flip. A strip slides across the board to call it.PlusTwo or more pairs add up to the same total: those rivals flip. A strip slides across the board to call it.ComboCards flipped by Same or Plus flip their own neighbors. A strip slides across the board to call it.HabitatsOn its home habitat a beast gets +1 on every side. Anywhere else, -1.Inspect a cardPress B on a card in your hand to see its tier, home habitat and notes.Pick a rivalEight rivals, five cards from your binder, then the bout.Browse the binderCrank or D-pad through all 27 beasts.
V · Screenshots
Screenshots
Title screenMain menuCampaign · eight rivalsChoose your fiveHand readyA bout beginsHolding a card over the boardCard detailA card flipsVictoryClaim a cardLining up a SameSAME!PLUS!COMBO!Habitat spotHabitat bonusQuick Bout setupBinderHow to Play · 1How to Play · 2How to Play · 3How to Play · 4
All 23 screenshots are in screenshots/1x (native 400×240, pure black and white, exactly as the device draws them) and screenshots/4x (1600×960 in the Playdate screen’s grey tones).
VI · Music & sound
Music & sound
Soundtrack
Binder Stroll104 BPM · F major · 0:55 loop
Warm swung lofi-chip groove for the title and menus: flute-pulse hook, marimba replies, e-piano comping.
Paw to Paw124 BPM · A minor · 1:01 loop
Driving funk duel theme: tresillo pulse hook, octave-popping bass, call-and-response bridge and a breakdown drop.
Alpha of the Den140 BPM · A minor · 0:48 loop
Final-rival remix of the duel theme at 140 BPM: four-on-the-floor, driving saw bass, phrygian boss riff.
Jingles
Sound effects
Every sound is synthesized for Beast Triad and plays on the Playdate as 22 kHz mono samples. Previews are MP3.
VII · Background
Why a card game about animals
A tiny 3×3 board is one of the best puzzles ever put on a card table: every move changes what your rival can do next. It also fits a Playdate perfectly, with a screen made for crisp cards and a crank that is happy to riffle through a hand.
The name is a nod to Triple Triad, the card game inside Final Fantasy VIII. A triad is a group of three, and a 3×3 board is three rows of three.
Beast Triad began as one question: what if the cards were beasts, painted like the portraits of an old card game? The roster, its numbers and its habitats grew from there. A hedgehog is strong on its sides and weak on top. A rabbit is quick on the left and careless everywhere else. An eagle owns the sky and nothing else.
The whole game is drawn for Playdate’s 1-bit screen: side-profile animal portraits with dramatic light and dithered shadow, card frames that grow richer up the food chain, and a royal interface of fine rules, crowns, fleurs-de-lis and a serif display face.